Photography Masterclass Magazine
HOW TO SHOOT MOODY WOODLAND PHOTOS
When people think of landscape photography, woodlands aren’t usually the first place they’ll imagine as great locations. And this is a shame, as woodlands and forests offer a huge amount of creative possibilities for unusual and unique images.
Photographing woodlands also gives you more options to produce images that haven’t been seen before, as opposed to a generic shot of a popular location. In this article, I’ll give you all the tips and tricks to get fantastic and moody woodland photographs.
WHEN TO SHOOT
One of the great things about photographing forests is that they’re very forgiving to various types of weather. The canopy of the trees means that you can happily work in grey and overcast images that would usually be very uninspiring for photography. You’ve also got the option of using the trees and foliage to work in strong sunlight.
Because you’ve got a lot of freedom with lighting conditions in woodland photography, you can also take photos at any time of year. Traditionally, people associate photographing trees with autumn and it’s true that you do get the beautiful golden colors of the changing leaves at this time of year. But the other seasons offer plenty of opportunities as well!
Winter offers the chance of snow and atmospheric mists, along with pine forests that keep their leaves all year round. Spring offers plenty of fresh plant and tree life, whilst summer gives the chance to photograph long and (hopefully) sunny days.
CAMERA GEAR
A decent camera with the ability to change lenses will give you the best options to capture woodland photography. A wideangle lens is an essential for any type of landscape photography, allowing you to capture wide vistas. But what you might be surprised to learn is how useful a telephoto lens can be when photographing in the forest. A 70-200mm lens will give you some really creative options.
A tripod is essential for woodland photography – even with strong sunlight filtering through, you could still find that the thick foliage is making your image surprisingly dark and you’ll therefore need longer exposures. I also recommend using a remote trigger for your camera to avoid any shake from releasing the shutter (you can use the camera’s self-timer, but it won’t be quite as good).
Lastly, any landscape photographer should carry both a circular polariser and neutral density (both solid and graduated) in their kit. A circular polariser will reduce any glare from damp vegetation, make colors vivid and help to add color contrast. Neutral density filters allow you to get longer exposures without over exposing either a part of the whole of a shot and give you creative possibilities with any water and sunlight – softening it for an artistic effect.
WATCHING YOUR VERTICALS
Before I go any further, I just need to quickly mention your verticals when you’re shooting trees. Unless you’re prepared to spend some serious money on a tilt-shift lens, you’re going to have to contend with some perspective issues and trees looking as if they’re ‘leaning’ in a little the higher up they go.
Using a telephoto lens can actually help to keep your verticals straighter – particularly if you’re cropping into part of the trees. In addition, if you are shooting with a wide-angle lens make sure you shoot your scene with some extra space around your desired frame.
This means that you can correct your perspective and straighten any verticals in a post production programme such as Photoshop.
HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH IN THE WOODS
There are lots and lots of creative techniques you can use for woodland photography. As with much photography, you’re really only limited by your own imagination! But here are some ideas to get you started.
EXPERIMENT WITH FOCAL LENGTHS
As I already mentioned above, it’s a great idea to experiment with both a wideangle and telephoto lens when it comes to shooting woodland photography. A wide-angle lens gives you the option of capturing a whole, beautiful vista and helps to give a sense of scale and grandeur. But a telephoto lens allows you to isolate specific areas of a scene. It can also allow you to isolate an area of the woodland and give you a cleaner, less distracting composition.
USE A SMALL DEPTH OF FIELD
We’re so used to shooting landscapes with a large depth of field (i.e. a small aperture of f16 to f22) that it seems counter-intuitive to use a smaller depth of field in woodland photography. If you’re photographing a section of woodland with sun or mist coming through the trees, for example, using a small depth of field will help soften the background and ensure subject separation – drawing the viewer’s eye to the trees at the front of the frame.
In addition, you can use a telephoto lens and a small depth of field to capture small and specific details in the forest. Look for small elements such as toadstools, brightly colored flowers etc. and zoom in on these – using the woodland and trees as a soft, vivid background.
EXPERIMENT WITH YOUR ANGLES
You don’t just need to photograph forests straight on at eye level! For starters, drone photography is extremely popular nowadays and you can get a fantastic feel for the vastness of forests by doing aerial photography.
From the floor of the forest, think about shooting upwards from a low angle. In the daytime, this helps to emphasize the size of the trees. Or, at night, you can use the trees to frame the night sky and the stars with a long exposure.
BLACK AND WHITE
Don’t discount black and white photography for forest landscapes. Think of Ansel Adams astonishing images of the Redwoods and you should immediately see the potential! With digital, you can obviously shoot in color (to convert to b&w in post production) or switch your camera to monochrome. Personally, I prefer to shoot in color and then convert afterwards, as you’ll get better options in post. But this does mean that you need to learn to ‘think’ in black and white.
What does this mean exactly? It’s important to look for a scene that displays strong contrasts of light and dark, as you’ll need these to translate into black, grey and white tones. Shadows that can look overly harsh in color can be used to eliminate distracting elements in black and white photography, whilst backlight
also lends itself to the contrasts of black and white.
WORK WITH THE LIGHT
Woodland photography is much more forgiving of challenging lighting conditions than most landscape photography. For example, grey clouds aren’t the most thrilling of days for most photographs. But with the cover of the trees, the clouds almost become like giant softboxes – softening harsh light, reducing shadows and giving a soft glow to the foliage. You’ll also start to see more detail on tree trunks and leaves, as there are no harsh shadows to drown them out.
Think you can’t shoot in the midday sun? Again, woodland photography lends itself to this harshest of light, as it will create strong rays of light filtering through the cooler areas of shade. This can lead to extremely dramatic shots!
And, of course, golden hour also provides great photographic opportunities for woodland shots. The warm light at this time of day is always flattering for any landscape work, although you may find that the light is slightly muted as the trees will block a lot of it.
IN CONCLUSION
Finding a patch of woodland usually doesn’t mean travelling too far and it’s one of the most forgiving places to photograph in a variety of seasons and lighting scenarios. Woodlands are a wonderful place to find a spot of peace and quiet and create tranquil, stunning imagery.